Thursday, December 13, 2012

another year has passed and like the one before it, your beautiful little life has been splashed all over social media for everyone to see. it is truly amazing how many people have grown to love you without being an intricate part of our every day moments. you - WE - are so blessed. don't ever forget that. EVER.

i cannot even begin to wrap my mind around how amazing these last two years have been. i'm not quite sure how - or when - it happened, but you are growing into an absolutely beautiful little girl and there is really very little left of that sweet little baby we brought home that made us a mommy and daddy for the very first time...

watching you grow is nothing short of a miracle. you are so smart (sometimes too smart for your own good!) and you are absolutely hilarious. you have such a loving spirit with enough sass to keep us on our toes. your fits are few and far between, but when you do throw one, girl, you make it count. i can't say i'd expect any less because you are, after all, your mother's daughter. and i'm so sorry you got the mounts temper...but with hope for us all God blessed you with just enough of your daddy's calm temperment that it may - JUST MAY - cancel it out. or at least cut it back a bit.

so, what all has happened in your second year of life?

you made a seamless transition in a big move back to oklahoma and never missed a beat when you moved to the big girl bed. i was so afraid it was going to be a total nightmare when you figured out you could get out of the bed, but it took you a month to do so and you still (THANK GOD) can't open the doors in our house...so for now, you're still trapped. although you will lay in the floor at your door and SCREAM when you want out of your room, which makes me wonder which i'd prefer...

when we brought home your baby brother, you were 18 months old on the nose and you transitioned into being a big sister so much better than anything i could've ever imagined. i thank God for his timing and for giving you that nurturing instinct that i'm told all big sisters have. you will tell mommy when bubba is crying or when he spits, or when he is into something he's not supposed to be. you have started to wipe his face and take his bottles to him and put them in the kitchen when he's finished. you really are becoming such a good helper!

one of my FAVORITE things about you is that you are so funny! i mean really, REALLY funny!

my favorite things you say are:

saw saw (sausage)

bar chicken (peanut butter sandwich, which took me a month to figure out what you were saying!)

roll call: you go through anyone and everyone you can think of and ask if they are okay.

pease, tank you, and okay, yes pease (you had a bad habit of replying "okay" when offered something, so i tried to teach you to say "yes, please" instead. of course, you did your own thing and instead reply "okay yes pease." and i love it!)

you don't sign much anymore (unless you are REALLY upset and can't find your words), which makes me sad, but i'm hoping that will change when bubba starts signing:)

you weigh 32 pounds, are 36 inches tall and rank in the 90% of girls your age. You have the most beautiful curls that I'm certain God himself must've wrapped those things around his very own finger because they are PERFECT. Absolutely perfect.

here are some of your favorite things:

mickey mouse (and his entourage)

lion king (or as you say: KAYNG!)

nemo

elf on the shelf book/movie ("alp")

grinch

shrek

despicable me, which has been on the top of your list since you were a year old.

boots

diva and moose

christmas trees/lights/cartoons

coloring

reading books (your faves are pooh, elf on the shelf, lady bug counting book, i see a monster)

bathtime

pizza

chicken nuggets (chicken nugs as you say)

MILK. your world revolves around milk.

chips/crackers in a cup (has to be in a cup or you freak out!)

yogurt

pb and honey sammies

tractors

playing outside

your best friends journey and elle

we are so thankful for your continued good health, which is nothing short of a blessing. you are really starting to learn comedic timing and watching you "joke" is so cute. you are such a daddy's girl and he gets a world-class welcome EVERY time he walks through the door. it's darling.

i have been able to see the hand of God working in your sweet little life from the very first day you were born and one of the proudest moments in my life to date is when you started saying your prayers. we thank Jesus each night for our many blessings and you whisper each name back in your angelic voice that melts me. there is nothing sweeter to my ears than hearing "jesus" and "amen" come out of your precious little mouth.

i continually pray that you will come to have a personal relationship with our Savior. i know you will probably grow tired of hearing this, but i want you to KNOW deep in your soul that there is nothing as beautiful as a close and intimate relationship with Jesus. there is freedom in the Lord that nothing in this world will give you, even though society will tell you otherwise. we have been blessed with such an amazing gift that we are saved by grace through Jesus by no merit of our own.

we know that growing pains will be difficult; scripture tells us that. the molding and firing process is never easy, but like years past, i'll remind you of our PROMISE that mommy and daddy will ALWAYS be together and we will ALWAYS be here for you. we are your safe place and although we can't - or won't - always save you from heartache, we will be here to walk beside you through the trials. i promise. PROMISE.

i'm still not quite sure how you are two years old, but what i do know is that you have blessed us beyond anything we could have ever dreamed in a million years. there are no words worthy of the love we have for you and we are so unbelievably grateful Jesus has given us the amazing responsibility of being your mom and dad.

we'll work on modesty and sitting like a lady in your third year of life:)

We love you, Brice Elisabeth. Here's to another amazing year...

i will sing of the Lord's great love forever; with my mouth i will make your faithfulness known through all generations. i will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself. {psalm 89: 1-2}

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

as i told y'all a while back, we went ahead and jumped head first into the dreaded theme party...

i have to admit, we may have had more fun than the littles did! i'll be honest when i say we used a two year old's birthday party as cover for an adult party:)

daddy smoked a pork shoulder from a wild boar and some deer (both he shot himself and he was SO proud of that!) and we of course had hot diggity dogs! for the kiddos, we got a pink and purple castle bounce house which was worth EVERY penny. the kids had a blast!!!

my only regret from the day is that i didn't get more photos!

we have a birthday tradition of a ginormous birthday number every year! we have such a sweet (and crafty!) daddy to make these for us. see last year's here.

to make the yarn wrapped two and the balloon two, i purchased a long, narrow styrofoam sheet from hob lob. i then free handed the shape, cut it out with a steak knife (which works beautifully, FYI.) and followed up with some sanding to get the perfect shape. you can see the inspiration (and the uber-simple how-to, of course!) behind the balloon two over at confessions of a plate addict.

again, our super-amazingly-awesome daddio went to work and make us our huge mickey silhouette! he cut it out of some sort of foam insulation sheet from home depot.

our super-duper yummo mini cupcakes and cake were done by the fantastic bakery at uptown grocery in edmond. i CANNOT speak highly enough of them!!! so good, and the best part...cake and two dozen mini cupcakes for $40, including tax! YES. YOU. HEARD. ME. $40. awesome.

of course, huge SHOUT-OUT to my bff, the cricut! i couldn't have made all the paper products with out her!

i wish i would've made a point to tell more guests to use instagram. i was really hoping to have a TON of pics of everyone's kids so i could make an instagram scrapbook...but the ones i did get were great!

my sweet mother in law made these darling mickey and minnie hats for the littles. the boys had buttons and the girls had bows. so cute.

in addition to the bounce house, we also had mickey mouse coloring pages and a cookie decorating table out in the backyard. my brilliant friend cara told me to put the icing and sprinkles in a cupcake tin. genius, i tell ya'. GENIUS.